<p>for ivy league recruits out there…what was your course load in high school like?</p>
<p>As an athletic recruit you’d be expected to have the same course load that’s of the same academic level as your high school peers who apply to Ivy League schools.</p>
<p>Depends how good you are-and what sport.
Three Ivy recruits from our school in the past 3 years-all took “harder” courses, but none took the full IB curriculum that they could have. They had all As and Bs, SATs above 700, and of course were state-ranked athletes.</p>
<p>lehomme,</p>
<p>Ivy athletic recruits should be taking a very rigorous and varied academic course load. Son was in a magnet high school for engineering. Son took a total of 4-5 AP classes over junior and senior year plus obvious focus on engineering classes. A’s are expected if you want to impress Admission committee.</p>
<p>As OldBatesieDoc points out, SATS above 700 are the norm, and some indication that you are a top level player (state-ranked) or D1 caliber athlete in your sport really helps to get the coaches support. Still, all of these credentials isn’t a guarantee. There has to be something that seperates you from others…a “hook” if you will because acceptance rates are 6.8% to 16.0% overall but can be a lower % depending on the college at a specific university.</p>
<p>As you would expect, the whole process is pretty challenging but can be very rewarding. Good luck and let us know if you have other questions.</p>
<p>In junior year my D took the AP level in every subject except one, but that course was still advanced. Senior year, every class was an AP. However, that is what all the kids from daughter’s school do who are admitted to the top schools.</p>
<p>My son is a current Ivy athlete. His HS course load was rigorous, with math through AP calc BC, the full complement of AP sciences (bio, chem, both physics), all of the AP history classes, etc. Seven APs junior and senior year, eighteen total.</p>
<p>That’s not the norm, but it was a good preparation for the rigors of his chosen college.</p>
<p>Sherpa: WOW 18 APs! 18? 18 full year classes or 18 semester AP classes (the latter equaling 9 full year)? Wow. I am super impressed. How did he do that? It seems almost impossible on a full year basis without somehow mastering several languages simultaneouly to the AP level in 1 year each vs a standard 4 track to an AP langauge, or unless your school has more of the lighter APs my school doesn’t offer as they feel the top colleges don’t value them as much (such as AP Enviro, Psych, Human Geo, Ecos, Art, Music).</p>
<p>Just counting outloud – AP Eng, Calc BC, Bio, Chem, Physics, World History, US history, Euro History, Gov, Statistics + 4 years of one language culminating in AP = 11 full year AP courses. Which is what i am taking. What are his other 7 APs if I may ask? I am aawed as most kids only complete 20 core academic classes over 4 years and for 18 to be AP with the prereqs, it seems amazing and I guess he somehow was able to triple up on classes each year (our scheduling system could never accommodate that as there are only so many periods in a day and course conflicts would arise and you can’t opt out of required gym, health, electives, etc.) … while doing athletics? wow.</p>
<p>Fenn is right, it’s the hook. Academically my daughter didn’t stand out at her prep school. 8 ap’s, several B’s, and nms commended, no big deal at her hs.</p>
<p>But hooks: she’s considered by college coaches to be one of the best athletes in the country in her sport. Also competited 4 years in a national academic team and won county and state titles. And state level academic medals for her individual performances. Grades don’t mean much to her but if its a competition look out:)</p>
<p>The “hook” is she performs under pressure and wins.</p>
<p>That and admissons loved her 2300 SAT</p>
<p>@Tallgirl - I realize 18 is a little misleading. When he was presented with his State AP Scholar award they noted that he had 18 AP scores, seventeen 5s and one 4. But he actually took only 16 AP classes; there were 2 subscores for AP Physics C and an AB subscore for AP Calc BC, for the total of 18 scores.</p>
<p>But yes, it is pretty amazing. And it included no “lite” APs, except for Human Geography, which he took as a freshman. I’ll try to recount them here:</p>
<p>Human Geography
World History
European History
Art History
US History
US Government
Chemistry
Biology
Physics B
Physics C
English Language
English Literature
Spanish Language
Spanish Literature
Calculus AB
Calculus BC</p>
<p>I think that’s it. I agree that it’s a pretty heavy workload for an athlete with all the training, travel, etc. But it’s probably fairly typical for non-athlete HYP applicants.</p>
<p>
Bingo! That’s how it was (and is) with DS. National championships the weekend between AP testing weeks? No problem. </p>
<p>I can’t understand it. Some kids enjoy the challenge and somehow always seem to rise to it.</p>
<p>It depends on the school, the sport and how much they want you. If you are really good at a sport that is important to the school, you can be closer to the minimum AI. Recent example:
Columbia: 3.3 u/w gpa (top 10%), 1900 SAT, nationally ranked player (regional all-american) - received likely letter, then acceptance and will attend and play next year.</p>
<p>sherpa, thank you. still very very impressive - kudos/congrats!!! – though now i see where we count differntly as my AP Calc BC class also covers the AP Calc AB curriculum and i supppose i could take both tests, but we only count it as one course. that is , they would never let someone take AP Calc AB one year and AP Calc BC the next year as the curriculum over lap is 80%. Also, we count AP English as one course, one test – not literature and langauage separately as they are in the same class/course. Ditto for Spanish Lang vs Lit. And Physics B and C – to us it’s one physics course.</p>
<p>So now I’ll have to recount my AP TEST number veruus my AP COURSES! off the top of my head, it looks like i will have 11 courses and 15 scores … if I can keep these straight As up while doing the sport I love 6 days a week practice year round plus travel!</p>
<p>thanks for the insights. again, wow and congrats!! what sport and what school if I may ask?</p>
<p>^sending you a pm</p>
<p>Does it matter if the APs are all in one area? e.g; all math/science or all humanites? Or should they be varied. Would it be better to have, say, 10 APs divided up between math/science and humanities? Or if all 10 are in just the humanities is that okay?</p>
<p>For a recruited athlete it shouldn’t matter too much. One HYP coach told me their athlete applicants are expected to have 5-6 APs under their belt to demonstrate they can handle the rigor. I doubt the distribution would matter.</p>
<p>Does it matter if some of the APs are self study? Or do they have to be actual classes?</p>
<p>^ FWIW, with top schools/admissions: Actual course load/rigor does matter.</p>
<p>Alright. So would 8 classroom APs plus 2-3 self-studied ones look good to an ivy coach?</p>
<p>Looking good to the Ivy coach means a lot less than looking good to the admissions office. In general, self studied APs are nearly worthless, since there is no grade and, at least with senior year APs, test scores won’t be out until long after admissions decisions.</p>
<p>All else being good, 8 APs for an Ivy applicant athlete should be OK.</p>
<p>Soc: Soc – I believe it is also common knowlege that AOs at top schools are aware which AP courses are considered less rigorous (from my understanding Psych, Enviro, Human Geo, Eco, Art/Music) so I’d make your choices with some of that in mind in my humble opinion.</p>
<p>Sherpa…</p>
<p>How was championships in Portland?</p>